Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/85

work, one of those books which, on going out into the world towards the close of the age of the Seleucides, made the word Chaldæan synonymous with charlatan. Here there can be no doubt. Dr. Chwolson gives up all idea of putting “The Book of Tenkelúsha in the same rank with those of Yarbúka and Kúthámí. He places it in the period of the Arsacides, at the latest towards the first century after Christ.[1] Greek influence betrays itself here indeed in an unmistakeable manner; a certain ارسطايولوس is cited in this work, a name in which one may trace Aristobulus, and which in any case, is certainly that of a Greek.

I shall prove, presently, that the work of Tenkelúshá is not alone known to us through the translation of Ibn Wahshíya, and that the Greeks have often quoted it. Let it suffice for the, present, that Dr. Chwolson recognizes that Tenkelúshá is a Chaldæan of the lower period. How is it that Prof. Chwolson has not perceived